Posts tagged ‘Jessica Jones’

With my recent disappointment with Luke Cage, I realized another level of disappointment: that I never took the time to write up all of my thoughts about Jessica Jones. Time to dig back into my backlog and post some of these older thoughts.

If Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best film to come out of the MCU, I have to say that Jessica Jones is the best TV series to come out of it. As wonderful as Krysten Ritter was in the title role and as fantastic as Mike Colter was as Luke Cage, David Tennant was at his swarmiest, creepiest, get-under-your-skin-est best as Kilgrave. He even outdid James Nesbitt’s performance in Jekyll. As much as I enjoyed Tennant in his time as the tenth Doctor, Kilgrave — for me — is Tennant’s defining role. I never expected Marvel to outdo Vincent D’Onfrio’s Kingpin in villainy, but Kilgrave boosted it up to a whole ‘nother level.

My only complaints? There are a few rough spots in the middle of the storytelling arc (Jones trying to get herself imprisoned in order to trap Kilgrave? Handcuffing a cop at gunpoint in front of a lawyer? Really?!?). And my only real disappointment with this show is the final resolution with Kilgrave; that was just a little too final. I know they were going for some semblance of personal resolution to allow Jones to move on with her life, but … it’s still disappointing.

In spite of that, I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s good to see a superhero with flaws, because that reminds us that these superheros (or at least some of them) are still human. So I’ll accept the complaints that I listed above as being due to the various human flaws in Jones’ character, especially considering this is really the first time we’ve seen a superhero depicted as struggling with the super equivalent of PTSD. So yes, I’m really looking forward to the next season, but I’m concerned about how they could possibly one-up what they’ve done with Kilgrave.

There’s a first for everything. In this case, this is the first Netflix/Marvel series that disappointed me. Both seasons of Daredevil were fun and Jessica Jones was surprisingly compelling. But not Luke Cage.

I was really hoping it would live up to the hype. The first three episodes were great, and I can see how people would describe that as the MCU’s take on The Wire. Unfortunately, episode four was packed with an unnecessary and not-quite-relevant flashback/origin story that derailed the main storytelling arc. Then they up and kill the show’s best antagonist, while the next couple of “major twists” are telegraphed ahead of time. And the one thing that is not telegraphed is a blast from Luke’s past that essentially pops up out of nowhere. I mean, c’mon, if you’re going to pack a whole lot of expositionary flashbackery into the fourth ep anyway, why not drop a hint or two of foreshadowing for what eventually forms the climax of the story? The next few eps tried to recover but then it all pretty much went downhill after that one particular death.

And is it just me, or does scene after scene after scene of thugs shooting at a bulletproof super-strong guy just get boring? Action scenes are supposed to be exciting, not dull. Yeah, I see how they added a sequence in the third ep that was reminiscent of Daredevil‘s hallway fight (or stairway fight, depending on what season you’re watching), but Luke Cage‘s big action piece there was nowhere nearly as exciting as the corresponding scenes in Daredevil.

Then further flashbackery ends up interfering with the climactic fight itself. No, dammit, we don’t need that. Let the fight play out the way it will play out, as it is. Throwing further flashbacks into the middle of the action ends up interrupting the action, which interrupts the storytelling, which pulls this viewer out of the moment and makes him wonder what new stories might be out there on Google News.

I am particularly disappointed here because of how powerful Mike Colter’s performance was in Jessica Jones. He was fantastic in that. He was … okay … here.

Another first: this is the first Netflix/Marvel series that had me watching it on one monitor whilst I was actively using a web browser in another monitor. Daredevil entertained me enough to keep my attention. Jessica Jones had me riveted to the screen for the most part. Luke Cage had me reading the news, my email, and forum posts with one eye during a solid two-thirds of it. That’s not a good sign for Iron Fist, whenever that ends up being released, since I was a whole lot more hyped for Luke Cage than I ever was for Iron Fist.

Sigh. Bring on The Defenders already, please. And Jessica Jones season two.